Since our worlds collided on that fated day in 2008 when the American dream became even more elusive for the majority of us there has been some time to reflect on our mistakes. Some of us have learned from what we have lived and experienced. Others, however, are still stuck in the partisan la la land of Rabid Conservatism or Rabid Liberalism. Each side pulling for its own without taking pause to understand the long-range consequences of their actions.

Politicians will do what politicians do best, protect their pockets and those who keep them full. What excuse do the common folk (non-corporate or lobbyist) have? You vote Republican or Democrat because they hold the best future for our country? Or do you vote because it is all you know and you cannot fathom the fact that both sides of the aisle serve the same master? It has gone way beyond the scope of political party or leanings. It is time to put those patriotic gestures, slogans and mindsets to actual use by truly putting your country first. We must put a stop to the criminal Washington/Corporate agenda that is killing us.

Until we truly and seriously address the criminals who are selling our Nation and our children’s future to the highest bidder we are doomed. Are you ready to face the truth or will you just sit back and blame another while you do nothing to change the problem?

The only answer to the putrefaction that is taking place all across this nation is in the hands of the people. Many laughed at the Occupy movement. Some vilified those who wanted to make a difference and voice their displeasure with the status quo. How many of you have done anything to make a change? How many of you have cared enough to even consider what role you may have to play?

Truly, I do not see a way out of this unless people stop seeing right or left and start seeing stars and stripes. This nation depends on it’s People, not its politicians. Why have we become so complacent that we are no longer willing to fight the good fight for our freedom and our way of life? When did this nation become the home of the lazy and the weak? It is time the strong and the brave stood up, if there are any left.

What will it take to make you see that politics is a trap? An illusion to make us believe we have a choice when in reality we have none. They have both evolved to serve the same masters and fulfill the same agenda. An agenda that serves neither you nor me. When will you wake up from your blue and red slumber to see that we have all been lied to ?

When do we take America back as a People not a political party?

The time is growing short people! Unless you open your eyes and understand what is truly at stake. You will never live in America the Land of the Free and the Brave again. We will simply exist in a land run by petty politics and corrupt corporations willing to do whatever it takes to maximize their bottom line. Even if it means exploiting our children’s lives and futures.

Is that an outcome you are willing to live with ?

………………………………………………………………………………..

Just in case you still don’t have a clue what I am talking about. Here is a very short list of examples of the Corporate Assault on Our Lives And Our Health that our politicians have allowed to take place for a price.

GMO’s in our food supply

Digestive disorders, Obesity,Endocrine disorders on the rise

Glyphosate in our foods, our water and our breast milk

Kidney and Liver damage on the rise

Fracking chemicals in the water supply

Cancers on the rise

Fluoride in the water supply

Vaccines causing deadly reactions in children and adults

Autism on the rise

Heavy metals in our food supply

Alzheimer’s on the rise

Deadly chemicals being pawned off as sugar substitutes from saccharine to splenda all have been found to cause cancer in animal studies. The biggest culprit and most dangerous thus far being Aspartame.

Life saving drugs monopolized by Big Pharma to bloat prices beyond most people’s reach. Daraprim being the latest going from $13.50 per pill to $750.00. Basically condemning those who cannot afford them to die.

There are so many more examples you just need to open your eyes and want to see the truth

~Desert Rose~

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David Korten: From Serving Money to Serving Life: A Sacred Story for Our Time

When we get our story wrong, we get our future wrong. Much like the Trans-Pacific Partnership “trade deal”, everything we are told about capitalism and our economy is a pack of lies. Time for a new story, says preeminent scholar and critic of corporate globalization, David Korten, the best-selling author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning. David has a brand new book, Change the Story, Change the Future – a Living Economy for a Living Earth. He is the co-founder and board chair of YES! Magazine, co-chair of the New Economy Working Group, founder and president of the Living Economies Forum (formerly the People-Centered Development Forum), a member of the Club of Rome, and a former board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and associate of the International Forum on Globalization.

This Earth Day address was recorded April 22, 2015 at Seattle University Pigott Auditorium.

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Local Communities Dismantling Corporate Rule, part 1

Community Rights educator Paul Cienfuegos explains how “We The People” are exercising the authority to govern ourselves and dismantle corporate rule. When small farmers in rural Pennsylvania wanted to say “no” to a corporate factory farm coming into their community, they learned they couldn’t, because it would violate the corporation’s “rights” and state pre-emption laws. So they did something technically illegal – their town passed an innovative ordinance banning corporate factory farming. It worked! The corporation left town. Pittsburgh upshifted the approach: Rather than define what we don’t want, define what we DO want. Their “Right to Water” stopped natural gas fracking in the city. Ordinances like this have been passed in over 150 communities in 9 states. Tune in to learn how this works. Episode 258. [paulcienfuegos.com, celdf.org, YouTube channel “Community Rights TV” and communityrightspdx.org]

Peak Moment TV exists because of viewers like you. Subscribe to news and donate at http://www.peakmoment.tv, right side. Thanks for being in the Peak Moment community.

Why Is Congress Ignoring Our $18.4 Trillion National Debt?

Have we forgotten about the national debt? Congressional Republican leaders and the Obama administration have begun private talks about a new two-year spending plan that would keep the government operating beyond the 2016 election but would do little to address more fundamental structural problems, including entitlement and health care spending for an aging population.

Even before Congress completed work on a short-term spending measure to avert a government shutdown at least until early December, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), outgoing House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and President Obama held preliminary talks on a possible multi-year budget agreement to increase spending for both defense and domestic programs by lifting fiscal 2016 discretionary spending caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

The agreement would be similar in scope to a two-year mini-budget agreement that was struck by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) following a 16-day government shutdown in late 2013 that temporarily put an end to inter-party budget warfare. That agreement allowed for $45 billion more in spending above the caps in 2014 and $20 billion more in 2015, as well as $20 billion of deficit reduction.

Obama Is Willing to Put Our National Security at Risk With a Veto

USS Ronald Reagan and its embarked air wing, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, provide a combat-ready force that protects and defends the collective maritime interests of the U.S. and its allies and partners in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. (Photo: U.S. Navy Specialist 2nd Class Paolo Bayas)

Commentary By

Justin T. Johnson specializes in defense budgets and policies for The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for National Security and Foreign Policy.

The Russians are bombing CIA-backed rebels in Syria and continuing to hold parts of Ukraine. ISIS continues to spread in the Middle East and inspire attacks around the world. Iran is receiving hundreds of billions in sanctions relief, some of which will likely go to destabilizing the Middle East. China is building illegal islands in the South China Sea. Hundreds of thousands of refugees are streaming across Europe. The Taliban is on the rise in Afghanistan. And our national secrets are being vacuumed up by Chinese hackers.

At the same time, our national defense budget is being slashed.

Since 2011, the defense budget has been cut by 15 percent in real terms. If you include the war budget, which has been going down as we reduce troops in Afghanistan, the national defense has been cut 25 percent in four years.

As a result of these budget cuts, the U.S. military is smaller than it was on 9/11 and in many cases the smallest it has been in recent history.

The world is a mess, our military is being slashed, and now President Obama is going to veto a bipartisan bill that would increase the national defense budget by 6 percent in real terms.

The House of Representatives just passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (NDAA), and it is headed to the Senate. This is a bipartisan bill that has been signed into law every year for 53 straight years, but Obama plans to veto it for one simple reason: it doesn’t increase non-defense spending. The president believes that defense and non-defense spending should be increased, and, according to the White House, “he will not fix defense without fixing non-defense spending.”

John Boehner Admits Republicans are Willing to Put U.S. at Risk to Play Partisan Politics

February 16, 2015 By Allen Clifton

Republicans are anything if not predictable. The moment they gained power back in the Senate it was obvious that they were going to use that power to play petty partisan politics. The truth is, controlling Congress means very little as long as the person in the White House has veto power.

So no matter what sort of propaganda Republicans spew about the nonsense they’re going to undoubtedly shove through Congress, it’s still on them to send the president legislation that they know he will sign, otherwise they’re essentially just wasting time.

The president is the one person who’s voted into office on a national scale, meaning that they’re the one individual who truly “represents the majority of the people.” So no matter what anyone in Congress says, it’s beholden upon them to make sure whatever bills they’re sending to the president’s desk actually have a chance at being signed. It’s extremely rare for both the House and Senate to have the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.

All that being said, as many already know the Department of Homeland Security is set to run out of funding fairly soon. Normally this wouldn’t be a huge deal; all it would take is for Congress to pass a bill funding the department, which would almost certainly be signed by President Obama.

Bloomberg

Ukraine Braces for March on Parliament as Putin Resumes Bailout

Ukraine’s opposition will march on parliament to pressure lawmakers struggling to end a deadly three-month political standoff, jeopardizing compromises that eased tensions over the past week.

Vitali Klitschko, a former boxing champion, and Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a lawmaker and former central banker, plan to lead thousands of demonstrators today on the first mass action outside their Independence Square compound since Jan. 19, when the last attempt to reach parliament erupted in clashes with police.

“If politicians don’t make a decision tomorrow, we the people will,” Serhiy, a 23-year-old from the Lviv region near Poland, said inside the encampment yesterday, wearing camouflage and a bulletproof vest adorned with a paper “self defense” badge.“We’ve had enough. We’re fighters. We haven’t come here to listen to talks. If we decide to act, we’ll act.”

Klitschko and Yatsenyuk are seeking to overturn constitutional changes that strengthened Russia-backed Yanukovych’s powers and put Ukraine on a path toward European Union membership. The standoff began Nov. 21, when Yanukovych pulled out of a free-trade deal with the EU, opting instead for President Vladimir Putin’s offer of $15 billion of aid and cheaper gas. It turned bloody on Jan. 22, when three activists were shot dead.

Russian ‘Hardball’

Russia, which stopped buying bonds from Ukraine’s cash-strapped government after Yanukovych’s Russian-born prime minister, Mykola Azarov, resigned on Jan. 28, said yesterday it will resume purchases this week. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov made the announcement just as Klitschko and Yatsenyuk were meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to seek financial and political backing to form a new government.

“Russia is playing hardball,” Alexander Valchyshen, head of research at Investment Capital in Kiev, said by phone. “Russia gave a clear signal that it knows who’ll be the next prime minister, that it’s ready to financially support him, and that no other players are acceptable here.”

Yanukovych, 63, will submit his candidate for prime minister this week, Speaker Volodymyr Rybak told reporters yesterday, after meeting with the president. Yatsenyuk rejected Yanukovych’s offer to become premier on Jan. 25.

Merkel Sympathy

Merkel told Yatsenyuk and Klitschko yesterday that the EU will “do everything” it can to help Ukraine out of the crisis, according to government spokesman Steffen Seibert. She also expressed sympathy for the “legitimate concerns” of Ukrainians, Seibert said in Berlin.

The standoff has hurt Ukraine’s bonds and helped push its foreign-exchange reserves to a seven-year low. The yield on the nation’s dollar debt due in June fell 83 basis points to 22.157 percent yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The hryvnia weakened 0.9 percent to 8.86 per dollar, extending this year’s loss to 7 percent.

“Let’s form columns here at 8 a.m. on Tuesday and march to parliament,” Oleh Tyahnybok, who heads the nationalist Svoboda party in parliament, told tens of thousands of protesters at Independence Square on Feb. 16. “We need you to press them.”

Image from Marotta’s website warning investors to prepare a “bug-out” bag in case of a fiscal…

A top financial advisor, worried that Obamacare, the NSA spying scandal and spiraling national debt is increasing the chances for a fiscal and social disaster, is recommending that Americans prepare a “bug-out bag” that includes food, a gun and ammo to help them stay alive.

David John Marotta, a Wall Street expert and financial advisor and Forbes contributor, said in a note to investors, “Firearms are the last item on the list, but they are on the list. There are some terrible people in this world. And you are safer when your trusted neighbors have firearms.”

His memo is part of a series addressing the potential for a “financial apocalypse.” His view, however, is that the problems plaguing the country won’t result in armageddon. “There is the possibility of a precipitous decline, although a long and drawn out malaise is much more likely,” said the Charlottesville, Va.-based president of Marotta Wealth Management.

Marotta said that many clients fear an end-of-the-world scenario. He doesn’t agree with that outcome, but does with much of what has people worried.

Walmart workers and community supporters in the Washington, D.C. area today protested against Walmart—the nation’s largest retailer—joining 1,500 protests across the nation in one of the largest mobilizations of working families in American history. Workers in the Washington, D.C. area were joined by tens of thousands of Americans in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Seattle, Sacramento, Miami, Minneapolis and other locations who called on Walmart to end illegal retaliation and publicly commit to improving labor standards, including providing workers with more full-time work and $25,000 a year. At a protest at the Walmart store located on Richmond Highway in Alexandria, Va., nine people, including one Walmart worker, were arrested in an act of civil disobedience calling for an end to the exploitation of Walmart workers by their company.

Fast Food Giants Starve Workers’ Wages, Gorge on Taxpayers: Report

– Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer

Demonstration outside McDonald’s in Times Square in support of employees on strike New York November 29, 2012. (Reuters/Andrew Kelly)As the nation’s largest fast food giants continue to push back against the ongoing fight for better wages by fast food workers across the country, a report released Monday reveals a world in which those companies are “pocketing massive taxpayer subsidies” as they feed their CEOs’ growing paychecks.

According to the report, Fast Food CEOs Rake in Taxpayer-Subsidized Pay, published by the Institute for Policy Studies, current tax code allows corporations such as Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and McDonald’s “to deduct unlimited amounts from their income taxes for the cost of stock options, certain stock grants, and other forms of so-called ‘performance pay’ for top executives,” meaning that the more corporations pay their top earners, the less they pay in federal taxes.

As IPS reports, over the past two years, CEOs of the top six publicly held fast food chains brought home over $183 million in deductible “performance pay,” which in turn reduced their companies’ taxes by an estimated $64 million.

As Sarah Anderson from IPS points out in an op-ed Monday, $64 million is enough to cover the average cost of food stamps for 40,000 American families for a year.

Fast food profits, in this way, come at the taxpayer’s expense from two sides: while CEOs’ paychecks expand and corporations pay less in taxes, those companies have simultaneously worked “to keep low-level workers’ wages so low that many must rely on public assistance.”

As another report from UC Berkeley recently showed, low-wage fast-food jobs currently cost the American public nearly $7 billion a year, as 52% of fast food workers, including those who work full-time, are payed so little they must rely on safety net programs including Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, as well as Earned Income Tax Credit payments.

“What makes all this even more galling is that these fast food giants are pocketing massive taxpayer subsidies for their CEO pay while fighting to keep their workers’ wages at rock bottom,” writes Anderson.

“All of the big fast food corporations are members of the National Restaurant Association,” Anderson writes, “which is aggressively working to block a raise in the federal minimum wage to a level that would let millions of fast food workers make ends meet without public support.”

Respect WALMART Workers – San Diego Light Brigade 11-27-13

Walmart is facing protests on Friday 11/29 at 1,500 locations across the country. Employees and activists will be pushing for higher wages, more full-time jobs and an end to employer retaliation. Please Stand With Walmart Workers and join a BLACK FRIDAY PROTEST near you!

Walmart collecting food donations to feed employees

Organized labor, protesting workers and other activist groups have been saying for years that low-wage Walmart employees can’t afford to meet basic needs like food. Now, one Cleveland, Ohio, location is doing something about it: soliciting food donations from other workers.

In an employees-only section of the store, management has placed two bins underneath a sign reading, “Please donate food items here so Associates in Need can enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner,” local paperThe Plain Dealerreported on Monday. Walmart spokesperson Kory Lundberg told the newspaper that it is for employees “who have had some hardships come up.”

“This is part of the company’s culture to rally around associates and take care of them when they face extreme hardships,” said Lundberg.

Abby Martin speaks to the director of Project Censored, Mickey Huff, about the organization’s release of ‘Censored: 2014’ the annual publication of the top most censored stories in the corporate press, from the trial of Chelsea Manning to the Trans Pacific Partnership.
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FOLLOW Abby Martin @ http://twitter.com/AbbyMartin

Thousands of people rallied in the town of Quimper in France’s Brittany region on Saturday calling for a complete end to the controversial “ecotax.” Police fired tear gas after demonstrators hurled stones and iron bars.

Farmers, food sector workers, fishermen, and others attended the protest, voicing concern over continuous layoffs and high taxes in the country.

Some demonstrators reportedly threw stones and iron bars at police as they gathered for speeches before marching into the city. Officers responded by firing tear gas and water cannons.

According to authorities, 10,000 people came out for the event. However, a protest organizer told French media that 30,000 people took part in the rally.

French protesters wore red caps resembling the 17th century revolt against King Louis XIV’s fiscal policies.

Protesters wearing red caps, the symbol of protest in Brittany, throw objects at a barricade held by French riot police during a demonstration to maintain jobs in Quimper, western France, November 2, 2013 (Reuters / Stephane Mahe)

Demonstrators came out despite the government’s Tuesday decision to “indefinitely suspend” the green tax on heavy goods vehicles transporting over 3.5 tons of commercial goods. The move followed public outrage from farmers and food sector workers in Brittany. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault stressed that the move was “a suspension, not a cancelation” of the tax.

As the northernmost region has less rail infrastructure than the rest of France, local businesses and farmers claim they are being unfairly penalized because most goods there have to be transported by road.

Residents of Brittany are angry as layoffs continue in their largely rural region. The majority of cutbacks are focused on the agricultural sector.

“How are we supposed to produce products that are made in France, made in Brittany, with all these taxes? It’s impossible,” a market gardener told France 24.

France is battling high unemployment and increasing taxes. The latest data revealed that at least 3.2 million people are now looking for work in the country.

Meanwhile, Francois Hollande has become the most unpopular French president on record, according to an opinion poll conducted in October. Major complaints against the leader include tax hikes, unemployment, and immigration policy.

Hollande’s approval rating dropped to 26 percent among those questioned in the BVA poll – the lowest level of any French president in the survey’s 32-year history.

With Congress about to begin the next cycle of budget battles – mostly focused on how much more pain to inflict on Main Street communities across America – a far different message is bubbling up across the land.

Activists from across the land gathered in Washington October 29 to step up what has become an increasingly vocal demand for a change of priorities and tone – with a call to expand the revenue pie with a tax on Wall Street speculation, the Robin Hood tax.

“The fire in this room will light up the sky for a lot of people,” said Larry Hanley, international president of the Amalgamated Transit Union surveying the room in the closing session of an action conference for the Robin Hood Tax campaign.

“We have a revenue crisis, and we know where the money is, it’s on Wall Street.” –George Goehl, National People’s Action

For the past two years, a movement has been building in the U.S., now endorsed by more than 160 local and national organizations who are calling for a sharp turn away from policies of austerity and more budget cuts with a financial transaction tax on stocks, bonds, derivatives and other financial instruments, paid by those very same banks, investment houses, hedge fund managers, and Wall Street traders who created the latest financial crisis.

Or as Hanley put it, “There’s been a 40 year crime wave and we’ve been the victims.”

Much of the impetus of the campaign for the Wall Street tax has come from National Nurses United, the nation’s largest organization of nurses, who have sponsored marches and rallies for the Robin Hood movement and were among the major organizers of the latest conference. “Nurses come with the perspective of humanists who don’t give up on patients,” said NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro.

“Nurses see the fallout of the wretched economic policy in the U.S. and globally and see people who have run out of solutions. We see a community responding to our message, who understand what matters is what pressure we put on” the policy makers, said DeMoro, and the demand “for allocation of funding of programs that make up a society, not the priorities that the corporations set.”

As the conference opened Jennifer Flynn, managing director of Health GAP, discussed what the Robin Hood tax, as embodied in a U.S. bill, HR 1579, sponsored by Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, could mean.

“With $6 billion a year, we can end the AIDS pandemic within the next 30 years. With $50 billion we can create the largest job program ever. With less than $3 billion we can end homelessness. With less than $10 billion we can reverse many of the effects of climate change. With less than $100 billion we can provide healthcare for all in most parts of the world. With $60 billion we can transform our education system. That would still leave more than $200 billion for other needs that would be raised by HR 1579.”

“It’s our job to put the Wall Street tax at the center of American politics… Those who say it can’t be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” –Jim Hightower

The Robin Hood tax, said Bobby Tolbert of Vocal New York, “is a way to bring power back to the 99 percent. The Robin Hood tax is inevitable, it’s just a matter of time.”

“We have a revenue crisis, and we know where the money is, it’s on Wall Street,” said George Goehl, executive director of National People’s Action. “We’re going to ask the politicians are you going to stand with Wall Street or Main Street?”

The conference itself was a prelude to a briefing for Congress with leaders of the coalition, renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs, and the vice president of the European Parliament Anni Podimata, who will describe how 11 European nations are successfully implementing a similar tax. The briefing is to be held October 31, after which the activists intend to fan out on Capitol Hill to press legislators from 26 states to support the bill.

The activists will also unveil a new letter signed by 163 well known economists and financial experts, including former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Gar Alperovitz of the University of Maryland College Park, and Thomas Palley of the Economic Policy Institute supporting HR 1579.

One of those economists, Robert Pollin, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, explained to the conference that “the basic idea is a tax on every financial transaction, the equivalent of a sales tax. Who pays the tax? The people who make trades every day on Wall Street.”

“With the financial transaction tax we can raise the revenue we need and discourage excessive speculation on Wall Street. It’s being done in the world’s second largest financial market, London and the fastest growing security markets in the world, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Russia. If they can do it, so can we,” Pollin said.

Sachs, also addressing the conference, cited polls showing 60 to 70 percent of Americans favor higher taxes on the wealthy, and “making the banks pay for what they did” in crashing the economy. Sachs, who is campaigning for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria noted that $5 billion invested in that effort “would save millions of lives,” and we know “where to find it.”

The 40 top hedge fund managers “took in $16.7 billion in pay last year, and the top tax rate they pay is just 15 percent.” That’s one target group for the Robin Hood tax, he noted. “We need these people to pay their fair share of taxes and their fair share of jail time,” Sachs said.

Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, cited a series of alarming signs of the ravages of the climate crisis, such as 180 communities in Alaska sinking into the water. “Climate change is affecting the air we breathe, the food we eat, the places we live, that’s why Friends of the Earth wants the Robin Hood tax.”

“It’s our job to put the Wall Street tax at the center of American politics,” said former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower. “Those who say it can’t be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”

DeMoro called the tax a “non-reformist reform,” which Pollin noted would establish “a whole new way” of determining economic policy. “It’s not just Wall Street who will decide if we have revenue for a green economy or education. We can’t just let Wall Street make all those decisions.”

“It’s up to us,” DeMoro concluded, “to build a movement that changes society.”

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

Germany wants the Robin Hood tax – and Europe’s voters do too

Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats look set to prioritise a Robin Hood tax in Germany. Photograph: Isopix/Rex Features

The path to implementing a tax on financial transactions (known as the FTT) was never going to be smooth. This week’s announcement that the expected coalition between Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats in Germany will prioritise the tax’s implementation, is a sign that the proposal remains on track. But any measure that taxes or regulates financial markets and banks will always meet concerted opposition.

In recent weeks, this has been growing from some quarters. The latest criticism, from France’s central bank governor Christian Noyer, was splashed on the front page of Monday’s Financial Times: “France central bank chief says Robin Hood tax is ‘enormous risk'” ran the headline. As this extremely small tax is to be implemented by 11 European countries, it is appropriate to ask: an enormous risk for whom?

Certainly it will impact on trades with short time horizons – high-frequency traders, whose computer algorithms fire off thousands of trades in microseconds, will undoubtedly have their business dramatically curtailed. Yet this will significantly reduce rather than create risk. Many regulators are concerned about the risk of this high-frequency trading, which now accounts for over half of trades on the London Stock Exchange. As demonstrated by the infamous flash crash of May 2010, when liquidity drained from the market and the Dow Jones index dropped 9% in a matter of minutes, it poses a threat to wider economic stability.

Rome: Clashes As Thousands March The Streets

Protesters threw smoke bombs and bottles at police in Rome as demonstrations against austerity measures in Italy turned violent.

10:32pm UK, Saturday 19 October 2013

Video: Rome: Protesters Clash With Police

Demonstrators have clashed with police in Rome as tens of thousands of people marched through the city to protest against unemployment, government cuts and construction projects they say take money away from social services.

The protesters turned over rubbish bins in front of the Economy Ministry and set several bins on fire.

Using sticks and clubs, they attacked police in riot gear. The police responded by charging the protesters and chasing them up side streets.

The demonstrators, who infiltrated a mostly peaceful protest, threw smoke bombs, eggs and bottles at the ministry and broke the window of a nearby bank.

A protester clashes with police in front of the Ministry of Finance

Police said 15 of the most violent protesters have been arrested and two policemen have been injured.

In another area along the demonstration route, police defused a large firework with a bullet inside, which they said could have caused serious damage had it gone off.

Protesters also set off smoke bombs and fireworks along the route and many planned to camp out during the night in front of the Infrastructure Ministry.

Italian protesters take on police during mass march against austerity budget (PHOTOS)

Violence broke out between police and demonstrators in Rome on Saturday as tens of thousands took to the streets to protest Italy’s new budget.

Thousands of people march during an anti-austerity protest on October 19, 2013 in Rome. (AFP Photo / Alberto Pizzoli)

“We are laying siege to the city!” chanted the crowd, as a small minority pelted the police and government buildings with water bottles and eggs.

A group of protesters turned over garbage bins and set some of them on fire in front of the Economy Ministry.

Members of the Guardia di Finanza protect themselves as they stand in front of the Economy minister during clashes on the sidelines of an anti-austerity protest on October 19, 2013 in Rome. (AFP Photo / Alberto Pizzoli)

Police say they confiscated tear gas canisters and rocks from some of the radicals in the predominantly youthful crowd and found chains stashed away along the route of the march.

Organizers estimated that 70,000 people took part in the protest, while authorities placed the number closer to 50,000.

“With this budget the government is continuing to hurt a country which is already on its knees,” said Piero Bernocchi, leader of the left-wing COBAS trade union that was behind the demonstration.

“Even after austerity has proven to be disastrous, with debt rising, the economy crumbling, and unemployment soaring, they still continue with these policies.”

Anonymous launches video ahead of the Million Mask March

The collective behind the global protest that will occur on November 5th in over 150 countries launched a YouTube video today to raise awareness of the march.

Organizer of the Washington, D.C. event, John Fairhurst, explained that, as with many things within Anonymous, the event has taken on a life of its own. Saying that there are whole websites dedicated to the event, which he has no direct affiliation with. Anonymous is a leaderless collective that thrives on ideas, and once an idea is proposed and accepted, the originator of that idea steps back into the faceless crowd of supporters and joins everyone else that has elected to support the idea. The idea of a global march occurring simultaneously in cities around the world resonated within Anonymous. There are publicly organized protests occurring in over 50 U.S. cities and in almost every developed nation’s capital. The collective has established an event map to keep track of the different demonstration sites. Many countries where open protesting is prohibited have been organizing their events in secret and are not included on the map.

Municipal police demonstrate during a general strike in Athens on July 16, 2013.

Tue Jul 16, 2013 1:37PM GMT

1

The latest austerity measure is required by the country’s international lenders, including the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in order for Athens to start receiving EUR 6.8 billion (USD 8.9 billion) of fresh aid.”

Thousands of Greeks have staged a substantial rally in the capital city of Athens to protest against a bill that includes plans to cut thousands of civil service jobs.

At least 16,000 protesters gathered outside the parliament in Athens on Tuesday, shutting down municipal services by disrupting public transport and medical work.

The massive walkout came after unions called for a general strike against fresh austerity measures the government is imposing in order to receive billions of euros in bailout loans.

The latest austerity measure is required by the country’s international lenders, including the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in order for Athens to start receiving EUR 6.8 billion (USD 8.9 billion) of fresh aid.

The Greek bill is expected to be passed on Wednesday, placing 4,200 public workers, including teachers, school wardens, and municipal police under so-called redeployment.

By the end of this year, some 25,000 civil servants must be redeployed overall and an additional 4,000 fired in order for the country to receive the tranche in bailout rescue loans.

Greece is experiencing its sixth year of recession, which has forced it to impose harsh austerity measures over the past four years in return for multi-billion-euro international bailouts to avoid defaulting on its debt.

The measures are deeply unpopular among the population as citizens have seen their pensions cut and their salaries reduced by up to 40 percent.

Furthermore, the country’s overall unemployment rate has reached a level not seen in its modern history as it stands at 27 percent; the rate is at a shocking 64 percent among the youth.

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